Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Yomiuri: Foreign Tabloids Fanning the Fear of Fukushima Nuclear Accident

Here comes the Ministry of Truth. Or precursor of it. Because for now, it's the big media doing it under the guidance from the government.

Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese; 12:26PM JST 4/7/2011) is indignant that the foreign tabloid newspapers like UK's Sun, Daily Mail (which by the way has just spectacular photos of the earthquake/tsunami/nuke accident), and Germany's Bild are exaggerating the danger of radiation from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant beyond the "reality", and fanning the fear among their readers.

Yomiuri didn't like The Sun's March 15 headline (March 15??) , "thousands escaping Tokyo for fear of radiation leak". It didn't like Daily Mail's March 16 headline either that said "Japan caught in a nuclear panic", "Japan's nuclear crisis uncontrollable". It didn't like Bild for asking "is Japan going to pollute the entire Pacific Ocean?" (Headlines are not what actually appeared in these papers; they are my translation from the Japanese.)

People did escape Tokyo in numbers, particularly foreign workers who live and work in Tokyo at that early stage in the crisis. Daily Mail's assessment that Japan's nuclear crisis is uncontrollable seems just about right. You can't blame Bild for asking whether Japan is going to pollute the entire Pacific Ocean when a private company was allowed to dump the contaminated water with only a nod from its regulatory agency, and the government really doesn't have a plan on what to do with the highly contaminated water, 60,000 tons and increasing daily.

Japanese people over 80 years old would know exactly what their government is doing. It is a déjà vu for them. It happened before and during the World War II, when losing was portrayed as winning.

Just like the US government has been doing, not just on its endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (Lybia, Ivory Coast joining, maybe). Oh look, economy is improving, because the stock market is rising! Don't worry we have GE's Immelt (who has exported so many jobs abroad) to run the commission for jobs and competitiveness! Everything will be alright as long as we save our Wall Street Banks so that they can continue to pick your pockets, or we have to declare a martial law!

Never waste a good crisis, and the Japanese government is simply doing just that. Too bad the crisis had to be this big.

2 comments:

M. Simon said...

You might want to watch the video here:

Gorbachev - Chernobyl Did It

to understand what Japan is up against. Too bad it is not available with Japanese subtitles (that I'm aware of).

Anonymous said...

@ M. Simon

Alla Yaroshinskaya wrote a book about her story Titled "Chernobyl The Forbidden Truth" just in case you're or and one else is interested. It can be found at Amazon.com.

ISBN 0-8032-9910-9

Another great book on the Chernobyl disaster is "Insights from the inside" by V.M. Chernousenko
ISBN 3-540-53698-1. Dr. Chernousenko released the truth about the accident and he was chased out of Russia and died hiding from Russian officials in West Germany from all the radiation he was exposed to during his work at Chernobyl.

Product Description
Chernousenko's "Chernobyl" is a first-hand account of the events and facts surrounding this global disaster: The first part of the book includes an absoring account of what happened at Chernobyl nuclear power station on April 26, 1986, as well as a review of the rectification measures taken so far. The author re-analyzes the causes of the accident, confronting us with startling details about critical design faults in the (RBMK) reactors of the Chernobyl type. - The second part deals with the long-range and long-term effects of the catastrophe on man and environment, including a wealth of yet unpublished data along with proposals for future action. - Physicist Vladimir Chernousenko is eminently qualified to write on this topic: In 1986 he was appointed representative of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Chernobyl and the "Zone". He worked in the so-called Special Zone (10-km radius around the reactor) where he received large radiation doses. He was co-author of the internal Government Report for President Gorbachev and the Supreme Soviet. Until 1991 he was scientificdirector of the 30-km exclusion zone. - This book is a vital step towards establishing the truth about the causes of the accident and - even more important - the actual scale of its aftermath. It provides the specialist with the scientific and medical data needed for further investigation and for designing effective countermeasures, whilethe lay reader will profit most from the absorbing accounts and personal statements of eyewitnesses and other people directly affected by the catastrophe. - A unique collection of photographs adds further poignancy to the written descriptions. Appendices are added to explain the most important technical terms for the non-specialist and to provide technical details for the specialist. The book is of equal interest to natural scientists, medics and interested laypersons. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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